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IP Milestones in Argentina during 2016

Throughout 2016 the new government in Argentina resorted to a policy of opening up to the world, which will surely bring a change in terms of international cooperation treaties on industrial property.

In this regard, a clear change of direction took place in mid-2016, with the appointment of the new President of the National Industrial Property Institute (INPI), Dr. Dámaso Pardo, who has a long history in the Intellectual Property field. Among the first measures was Resolution 56/2016 issued on September 19, 2016, whereby patent applicants may request fast-track examination of a patent application. This, coupled with an increase in the number of examiners, will speed up the examination of patents and reduce the current backlog.

Since the arrival of Dr. Pardo at INPI, there have been expectations that Argentina will become a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). However, this is still uncertain, since it will depend on the approval of Congress, and to date no formal initiatives have been submitted in this regard.

Finally, there has also been news in relation to trademarks. By means of Regulation No. M-2.150 issued on November 18, 2016, INPI updated the reclassifier of products and services by adopting the 11th Edition of the Nice Classification, effective as from January 1, 2017.

We expect that 2017 will be a year with more changes in the same direction, allowing Argentina to become a party to other international treaties, which will strengthen our Industrial and Intellectual Property system.